Tourism Kamloops planning a rebrand of the city

KAMLOOPS - As Tourism Kamloops plans for the next five years, it’s looking at rebranding the city.

CEO Beverley DeSantis says the current “Playtime. Redefined.” brand is more than 11 years old and the city needs something that will resonate better with tourists.

“We need to be a little more bold, get people curious,” she says. “People don’t think good or bad about Kamloops, they’re indifferent to Kamloops.”

The goal is for the new brand to capture people either as they're planning their vacations or as they drive through. For those driving through, part of the goal is to convince them to return in the future.

“When we rebrand we have to make sure it resonates with the potential visitor,” DeSantis says. “We need to catch the attention of visitors.”

Tourism Kamloops is currently wrapping up it’s strategic plan for the next five years.

“Our strategic plan is essentially how will live and breathe over the next five years,” she says.

Currently marketers are researching what visitors like about Kamloops.

“It has to be authentic and something we can live up to,” DeSantis says. “Whatever we do we want to last for a long time."

The new brand will be determined by the end of the year and fully in use by the summer 2017 tourist season.

“Everything we do moving forward will be built upon the brand,” she says.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

OPINION At least part of me wasn’t sure I should write this, given what happened last time. It was August 15, 2003 and like many Thursdays before it, I was scratching around for a column idea. The summer newsroom